Nicola finds dark side to fun in the sun

Aug 8 2007

WHEN Nicola Hession noticed a mole on her shin had "blurred" she could not have imagined the trauma the routine discovery would case.

The 24-year-old financial administrator's doctor didn't seem bothered when she showed him, so she left it two years to get the blemish removed.

Only after doctors examined it later did she find out that the innocuous mark was a malignant melanoma.

"I couldn't believe it when my doctor told me," said Nicola, from Hollywood. "I didn't know how to react. I didn't cry or scream, but I was scared because I didn't know what to do or what would happen next.

"Two weeks later I had surgery at Selly Oak Hospital, where surgeons removed a 6in wide patch of skin from my shin in an attempt to prevent any remaining cancer from spreading.

"Luckily they caught it in time, but I still have to go back for six-monthly checks for the next five years."

Nicola spoke of her ordeal to warn holiday-making Brummies about the perils of the sun.

With her pale Celtic complexion, Miss Hession had always been careful, but her shock diagnosis of skin cancer two years ago had shown her how important it is to be vigilant in the sun.

"I've got traditional Irish colouring with very pale skin, so I've always been conscious to not overexpose myself in the sun," said Miss Hession.

"But I was so angry when I saw my friends using olive oil while we were on holiday last week. I really had a go at them because what they were doing was so stupid."

But their attitude is only mirrored in a national survey by Cancer Research UK, as part of its 2007 SunSmart campaign, which found a third of 16 to 24 year olds were "certain" to burn while on holiday, with a further 30 per cent admitting they might redden in the sun.

The latest available figures show that of the 6,689 cases of skin cancer diagnosed in 2003, 636 were in the West Midlands.

And many of these are linked to moles which have changed shape in some way.

Dr Lesley Rhodes, a Cancer Research UK dermatologist, said: "Rates of malignant melanoma will treble in the next 30 years unless there is a radical change of behaviour."